Carondelet Educator Vaccination Update

(January 27, 2020)

Carondelet is excited to announce that registration for the the first round of COVID-19 large scale vaccines was made available to Catholic school educators today, including Carondelet Catholic School, on a first-come first serve basis from the State of Minnesota.

The link to register for the free mass vaccination event, held at the Saint Paul RiverCentre in the metro area, was sent to school leaders and shared with our educators this morning.

This pilot program has created hope for our dedicated team of educators who have prioritized in-person learning admirably this school year. However, it is key to temper expectations and have patience as the program is still unfolding.

A couple points to note about the state’s vaccination pilot program:

This is a pilot program and the amount of vaccinations Minnesota has received from the federal government is only a fraction of what is needed to vaccinate all of Minnesota’s educators, school staff and child care workers.
Vaccinations have been allocated equitably across all educational sectors. In this week’s allocation, there is a minimum allocation of 2350 vaccinations for nonpublic schools. This allocation is spread across various regions of Minnesota, with an emphasis on schools located in the Metro area.
In this round, and subsequent vaccination plans, nonpublic staff will be served equitably and alongside public school staff, with a designated allocation and registration process.
As more supply is secured, more staff will be given the option to be vaccinated.
For those who weren’t able to get an appointment this week, there was an option to be waitlisted when more appointments become available.

Due to privacy laws, we cannot share with you (nor do we know) which staff members have opted into the vaccination pilot program. Additionally, teachers and staff may not feel comfortable discussing private health information, so we ask our community to refrain from asking specific individuals if they have been offered or will be taking the vaccine. By law, it is not a requirement for our educators to become vaccinated.

We are grateful for the leadership of Governor Walz, the Archdiocese, and the Minnesota Independent School Forum in helping our educators obtain access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Please continue to pray for all those impacted by this pandemic, especially our most vulnerable populations.

Mary Yamoah, Principal
Megan Hower, COVID Response Lead